Older physical anthropological/taxonomic usage of the term Oriental. Actually the term is/was Mongoloid which is less P.C. and not much used today. Oriental is still used in anthropological and forensic circles as it describes skeletal morphology and some superficial aspects of the human form.

Apparently the source of joyful exhileration has now been located, and you don't need the guys.

The dance is wings ; it concerns birds and takeoffs into the ever-after, along with returns as vibrant as an arrow ... One of the lovers shows them to the other, then shows himself, an initial language, comparison. Little by little the couple's demeanour turns, under the dovecote's influence, to a series of little pecks or leaps, swoons, until an invasion of aerial lasciviousness slips over them, with breathless resemblances. Once children, here they are birds, or the opposite, from birds they have become children, according to how one wishes to view the exchange in which forever after, he and she, would have to express the double game : perhaps the whole adventure of sexual difference! ... with the intercalation of a celebration toward which everything will turn under a sudden storm, and then the anguishing lovers, one ready to flee and the other to forgive, will unite ... You can imagine the hymn of the final triumphal dance in which the space put between the fiances by the necessity of their journey diminishes down to the source of their joyful exhilaration! (Mallarmé)

Vagina blog brings to mind *exactly* that image. Of course, those women who think it's empowering have never spend time in SE Asia, at clubs that featured any sort of ball centered demonstrations or not.

Though certainly, if certain human beings want to be defined by their vagina, that's how they will be defined. And then they will wonder why people define them by their vaginas.

I remember a time when the word "vagina" was not used so frequently in public. It was a better time. We women don't need to identify ourselves by our organs. I picture these vaginabloggers as a new manifestation of the giant sucking tunnel at the end of Poltergeist.

1jpb obviously believes that calling someone “Asian” (lumping Turks and Israelis with Japanese and Vietnamese) is somehow synonymous with “Oriental” — when it manifestly is not.

I also presume that 1jpb is one of those folks who insist on calling American Indians “Native Americans” despite the fact that a strongplurality of Indians prefer just being called “Indians” or “American Indians.”

Of course, south Asian “Indians” often object to this usage, but not only do they not speak the U.S. dialect of English, but they might more properly be termed “Bharatese,” since that is their own country's name for itself.

The Dude: Walter, the Chinaman who peed on my rug, I can't go give him a bill, so what the fuck are you talking about?

Walter Sobchak: What the fuck are you talking about? The Chinaman is not the issue here, Dude. I'm talking about drawing a line in the sand, Dude. Across this line, you DO NOT... Also, Dude, "Chinaman" is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-American, please.

The Dude: Walter, this isn't a guy who built the railroads here. This is a guy...

Walter Sobchak: What the fuck are you...?

The Dude: Walter, he peed on my rug!

Donny: He peed on the Dude's rug.

Walter Sobchak: Donny you're out of your element! Dude, the Chinaman is not the issue here!

The whole "Asian" label thing for "persons formerly known as Oriental" is a little annoying when you have to describe Pakistani's, Afghani's, etc., who are truly Asian as well.

The irony here being that most of the most PC ignoramuses (or, in the tradition of this thread, "ignoranuses") refer to Afghani/Pakistani folks as "Arabs" because they share a religion with most Arabs. But if you're, say, half Pakistani and say to someone you're of partially Asian descent, most people will think one of your parents is Chinese/Korean/Japanese, which is complete and utter nonsense.

The use of Oriental/Occidental is way out of favor and practice, but using the generic "Asian" is a weak substitute for the foregoing reason, notwithstanding that it's apparently the best that the priests of PC could come up with.

Vaginablog just sounds like such an enormous commitment. I think a clitortwitter sounds more fun and not so time-consumingly yawping.

But what do I know? I have a penis, of course, but I'm sure as hell not going to turn it into a penisblog and post to it. For one thing, I wouldn't want people swinging sticks on line and maybe hitting it. After all these years of faithful reliable service, it's earned a little quiet time.

Reminds me of when that gang of mass-murdering thugs, the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot declared that Cambodia was henceforth everywhere to be known as “Democratic Kampuchia,” and all the PC folks, in lock-step (as if they were screaming “Sieg heil!” in unison), joined in acclaiming the new designation for an old country, even in our own language of English — as if folks anywhere didn't have the right to use their own name for a foreign country in their own language (talk about Ugly Americanism in reverse!). Now it's internationally “Cambodia” once again.

Is vaginablog an OK term? Relatively speaking, it is. Here's a classic story about Harry Truman:"Always an earthy talker, Truman once offended a friend of his wife's by referring repeatedly to "the good manure" that must have been used to nurture the fine blossoms at a Washington horticulture show. "Bess, couldn't you get the President to say 'fertilizer'?" the woman complained. Replied Mrs. Truman: "Heavens, no. It took me 25 years to get him to say 'manure.' "

If you could get the people at Pandagon to "vagina," or for that matter "manure," it would be an improvement.